Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. She was the fifth of eight children to John and Lucy Ann Hurston. Her father was a preacher and her mother was a schoolteacher. When she was 3, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, one of the few all-black towns in the United States at the time. In 1918, Hurston began her college education at Howard University. After college, she married a jazz musician named Herbert Steven in 1927. When their marriage ended 4 years later in 1931, Hurston married Albert Price. Her second marriage only lasted 7 months. Throughout her lifetime she was a novelist, folklorist, and influential anthropologist who traveled extensively in the Caribbean and southern portions of the U.S. to engage